Summary: This Buffyverse is about fifty years or less into the future compared to the norm. Xander is a miner on Mars during the Red Faction rebellion.

Crossover: Red Faction (the PC game), Hellsing (the anime series, also the manga)

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Xander rubbed his eyes, feeling the smooth scales that were forming. He couldn't believe this!

Ow! And now his teeth were ganging up on him too?! Ow! Ow! Ow! Major doubleplus ungood OWWWWW!

Of course, this came out to Giles and Seras as "AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!"

After a minute or two, the toothache from hell subsided, and Xander poked around his teeth with his tongue.

Hold on.

Something strange was going on.

He poked out his tongue, looking at it in the mirror. Thin, forked?!?!

"WHAH TH' HELL!"

Giles' eyebrows were lowering in thought. "Xander, open your mouth?"

He obediently did so.

Fangs.

He had two long fangs, replacing his thirty-something normal, /human/ teeth.

He bet that Alucard had done this in revenge for the garlic laced toothpaste last night.

"S-Sir?," Seras asked. "Your scales are spreading!"

And they were. Already, most of his face was covered and the hard black scales were spreading down his neck. His stomach and the rest of his guts were starting to feel strange, too. The ovals that his pupils had formed into had sharpened into a pair of vertical slashes down his irises.

The shop bell rang. Alucard's voice rang out. "Master! I escaped from Eos!"

Xander looked up to the ancient vampire, the vengeance of Hell burning in his eyes. "Alucard! This is going too far!"

He paused, then moved over to the vampire. "Uh... Alucard, joke's over. You can move now."

"Master!," Seras scolded. "Master, wake up now!"

Giles opened and shut his mouth wordlessly, as a large spider vacated his bookshop, running out the front door. He ducked and shut his eyes and Xander turned around.

"G-man, you got any idea what's going on?"

"XANDER HARRIS, SHUT YOUR EYES NOW!"

"What?," the confused ex-miner asked. "Okay, you're the boss."

Seras took a bandanna out of a pocket and tied it around his head, covering his shut eyes. "Done."

Hang on a cotton-pickin' minute. "Er, this might be a stupid question, but have my arms gotten shorter all of a sudden?"

"It would seem so," Giles said. "Well, we, er, I, have a very good idea of what that bone fragment does."

"Don't hold out on the rest of us," Xander grumbled, Seras nodding.

"Well, taking into account the fleeing arachnids, the scales, fangs and killing gaze... Xander, you're changing into a Basilisk."

"A what-il-isk?," Seras asked.

"The King of Serpents," Giles said, taking refuge in routine. "The Basilisk is a large serpent, black in colour, with orange eyes. To look at a Basilisk in the eyes is death, although a reflection or refraction may instead incur petrification."

"I don't get it," Xander said, confused. "If I'm a Basilisk all of a sudden, how come Alucard there didn't die and dust when he looked at me?"

Giles sighed. Even after a year... "Er, Xander, he's already dead."

"Oh. Yeah."

Seras gave Xander a /very/ dirty look. It was therefore kind of a shame that he couldn't see the look.

Hang on, considering the Basilisk thing, maybe it wasn't a shame.

The shop bell rang again. Buffy and Willow wandered into the bookshop.

"Hey, Giles," Buffy said.

"Er, hello Buffy," Giles said in return. "Shouldn't the pair of you be at lectures?"

"Free morning," Buffy said. "We thought we'd come see our favourite donut-boy."

"Don't look me in the eyes," Xander said grumpily. "It's bad for your cholesterol level."

Willow's mouth opened and closed a few times, before she found breath. "Xander Harris, after--"

"NO, WILLOW!," Giles and Xander yelled. Okay, maybe Giles wasn't as loud as that.

"Ewww, Xander, like what's up with your skin?," Buffy asked, trailing a finger across the scales.

Giles took his glasses off and began cleaning them. The two living girls turned to look at him.

"What's going on, Giles? Why isn't Tall, Dark and Gruesome over there moving, and why isn't Xander looking Xandery," Willow asked.

The Watcher gestured at the bone fragment still resting on the counter. "That. Don't touch it at all."

"Still not getting it..." Buffy trailed off.

Giles pulled a thick bestiary off a shelf, opening it to the B section.

"There. Basilisk. The purpose of the bone fragment is to transform."

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